WD Black SN770 SSD Review – Mid Range Gaming Greatness?

I don't think it would be an understatement to say that Western Digital and their WD Black SN850 released back in 2020 was one of the very (if not THE first) commercially accessible m.2 SSDs that allowed domestic users to hit 7,000MB/s. Getting to the top tier PCIe4 party quite a considerable time before many of the other key SSD brands, has allowed WD black to hold a considerable market share and sharing the podium with the Samsung 980 and Segatae Firecuda 530 in the eyes of most high-performance gaming and content creator buyers. However, one area that Western Digital seemingly had not fleshed out as much as their rivals were, upon entering the PCIe 4 tier, not really stretching themselves out much. Brands such as Seagate and Sabrent have introduced several different PCIe4 SSDs to their portfolios that individually towards performance, value and durability. So that was why it was great news when I heard that some 18months since the release of the WD Black SN850, Western digital have produced a more affordable and mid-range alternative PCIe 4.0 M.2 SSD in the form of the WD Black SN770. Although not commanding the same performance threshold that the SN850 can provide, it manages to still hit pretty high, is more power-efficient thanks to it's more compact NAND and DRAMless design, lower in price and ultimately serves as an entry point for the most economical buyer to enjoy PCIe4 SSD storage. However, with the SN850 being in the market so long (and therefore pricing being varied and flexible this late into it's life), as well as other SSDs in the market becoming equally more affordable, has WD left things a little too late to attract the value tier? Is the potential rise of PCIe 5.0 this summer/autumn and the likes of a WD Black SN950 (?) enough to keep people sat firmly on their wallets? Let's review the WD Blck SN770 and decide if it deserves your data.

Video Chapters
00:00 - Intro
00:19 - History of WD Black PCIe4 NVMe SSDs
01:02 - Who is the WD Black SN7700 SSD for?
01:31 - Specifications of the WD Black SN770 SSD
02:25 - Unboxing the WD BLacck SN770 SSD
03:04 - How the WD Black SN770 SSD is Built
03:35 - Reported Performance of the WD Black SN770 SSD
04:22 - Comparing the WD Black SN850 vs SN770 SSD in Price?
05:37 - The WD Black SN770 and it's lack of DRAM and/or Memory, using HMB and it's impact?
12:13 - WD Black SN770 SSD - Testing Setup
16:30 - WD Black SN770 SSD - Test Results, Benchmarks and Performance vs the WD Black SN850
22:51 - The WD Black SN770 SSD Review Conclusion and Verdict - Should You buy it?

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[rodneysmith]

The SN770 is great for people who only have gen 3 PCI express as it allows them to completely max out the interface with it's backwards compatibility. Most drives designed for gen 3 do not exceed 2000MB/s and are highly inconsistent when doing mass transfers, some of which drop down to 50MB/s. The only other drive that comes close is the Samsung 980 and even that doesn't max out. She gets pretty hot on sensor 2 though, so you'll want a heatsink.

[voodoochildaz]

Thank you for a genuinely good deep dive reviews. Short reviews have their place, but this is thorough analysis and review that was GENUINELY useful for me. I actually watched it twice.

[IMMORTALxCHAOSxGAMERS]

will this wd black sn770 be a good match for a asus tuf gameing b550 plus wifi 2 motherboard

[jaceyong]

why are the total reads and writes (in excess of 27 TB) so high before the tests?

[tahnalos]

Question for anyone who may be able to answer.

I bought this drive to replace the default 1TB drive on my MSI Katana 15. Wanted a 2TB drive to go with my 4TB secondary SSD. It was on sale for $155 CAD which by all accounts, appears to be a very good deal for what I saw as a decent performing 2TB drive.

I did notice one thing odd though. On one of my games in which it is using 8x MSAA, the machine randomly stutters a lot. Could the SN770 not having DRAM have anything to do with the stutters? This is because a fellow gamer suggested that the drive may be trying to write something large to the drive during gameplay and is hitting the HMB limit.

(FYI, the drive I replaced on my Katana 15 is a WD SN560E. The PCB is exactly the same as the SN770 so the drive I replaced is also DRAM Less.)

[paulpetros]

@NASCompares So you say the SN770 suffers a drop in sustained writes after a while. Are you saying the SN850 does not (as with all DRAM SSDs)? I put it to you that the Host Memory Buffer has nothing/little to do with the large drop in sequential write speed. It's when the cache is used up.

[jeffersoncampervan]

Thanks for your great videos! I watched both this one and the one comparing the 770 and the 850. What strikes me is when you touched on the apparent greater efficiency and cooler operation. My usage scenario is as a light-moderate computing/OS drive in what is basically a thin Ultrabook (Samsung Book Pro 360). No gaming. So I'm considering battery draw and cooler running in addition to performance. This is one concern I have regarding the SN850 or Samsung 980Pro. Do you think I need to worry about this? Otherwise the difference in price is such that I'd just grab the SN850.

[kylemcmahon]

Hi I just purchased this ssd to replace my failed Samsung pm981a 1tb that came in my acer predator helios 300 was it a good idea or should I exchange it for a better one

[fearthisgamerneedgs-skysu]

Yeah but will it really hurt anything putting this in my PS5? My girlfriend bought me this for my birthday and I'd really like to use it. The only side effect I'm hearing is that games don't load as fast but they still play? So what's the big deal?

[HECKAKYH-ADEKBATEH]

RAM isn't fingers in your term, RAM is capacitor, temporary storage, thing that smooths the flow. In CPU RAM is also used to offload the internal pockets (registers), aka execution stack!

[GameZero]

I have 16gb ram, any idea how much memory will the ssd take? Also how do I know if my system supports host memory buffer?

[raymondmarshall]

Hi is it good enough to put in laptop for a second m.2 and is it good enough to use for my iTunes music and movie and TV shows and audiobooks and podcasts my stuff is 1.2tb

[linkmasters]

So for a PS5 SSD 2TB with heatsink is the only one that I should get instead of the SSD 2TB SN770 WD

[RiverFlower]

Is it good for gaming? I used b650m pro rs and its alrdy has a heatsink there. Is it good only for gaming? Cause sn850x still expensive on my country

[noodlefoo]

Thank you for the review. The lack of DRAM is always something to considered in the back of your mind. SN770 only just available in Australian market, the price is very high, the 1TB SN850 is only less than AUD $10 more expensive in one retailer, so a no-brainer to choose the SN850 over the SN770. I am interested in your upcoming comparison with the Seagate Firecuda 520 because that's the new SSD I just bought.

[dannydoesd]

i have it on my ASRock Z370 Extreme4 it not seen on the bios
the samsung 980 and PNY 500 GB XLR8 CM3031 re working in the bios can you help

[saavedraorig]

Hello. Does anybody know about the 2TB specifically if it is single or double sided?

[BryanMiraflor]

would it be okay to use this in something like an Acasis Thunderbolt 3/4 enclosure in order to do photo and video editing?

[bobbymoss]

All the mixed results and reviews on the SN770 scares me. I decided to cancel my order and get the SN850 for peace of mind. Sure, it's $35 USD more, but it's worth it in the long run I think.

[tph]

Do i need to download anything on my pc or can i just use it right away?